NOBULL: Shareholders Join Farmers & Experts to Push Resolution at Monsanto AGM Demanding Greater Transparency on GMO Products
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
Monday, 27 January 2014
CONTACT:
Brett Abrams : 516-841-1105 : brett@fitzgibbonmedia.com
Paul Towers : 916-216-1082 : ptowers@panna.org
Anna Ghosh : 510-922-0075 : aghosh@fwwatch.org
Tracy Geraghty : 707-738-5735 : tracy@harringtoninvestments.com
At Monsanto’s Annual General Meeting, Shareholders, Farmers and Food Experts Push Resolution Demanding Greater Transparency on GMO Products
PRESS CALL: Shareholders, Farmers and Consumer Advocates Detail the Need for Greater Transparency on GMO Safety and Costs; Experts Available
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Ahead of the Annual General Meeting of Monsanto’s shareholders on Tuesday – where shareholders and farmers will join experts and consumer advocates to push forward a resolution urging Monsanto to provide greater transparency on GMO products – advocates will hold a telephone press conference detailing the resolution up for a vote at Monsanto’s Annual General Meeting and answer questions from reporters.
The Resolution, filed by John Harrington of Harrington Investments, Inc, will be presented by Margot McMillen, a farmer in Callaway County, Missouri and member of the Executive Council of the National Family Farm Coalition. On Monday, January 27th, McMillen will join other farmers, shareholders, experts on the food and pesticide industry, and advocates from SumOfUs.org, a global corporate consumer advocacy organization on a telephone news press conference to outline the importance of the resolution, and answer questions from reporters.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Tracy Geraghty, Research Analyst, of Harrington Investments; Troy Roush, Indiana farmer, former vice-president of the American Corn Growers Association; David Runyon, Indiana soybean farmer; Margot McMillen, Missouri farmer and member of the Executive Council of the National Family Farm Coalition; Lisa Lindsley, Senior Shareholder Advocacy Manager for SumofUs.org; and Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Senior Scientist at Pesticide Action Network
WHEN: Monday, January 27th. 11:30 am ET
CALL-IN NUMBER: 866-952-1907, 785-424-1826
CODE: MONSANTO
VIEW THE RESOLUTION HERE: http://harringtoninvestments.com/monsanto-resolution-board-review-on-the-financial-risks-of-gmo/
The Resolution, comes as the labeling of genetically-modified organisms has become a matter of increasing concern for State legislatures. Connecticut and Maine both passed laws in the last year that would requiring the labeling of GMOs and at least fifteen other states have offered legislation that would require similar labeling. In addition, Monsanto is slated to introduce a new round of genetically engineered seeds and pesticides that pose serious threats to farmers and rural economies. In 2013, Monsanto spent over $7.1 million in 2012 to defeat Proposition 37, a statewide initiative to require GMO labeling in California and contributed heavily to a similar referendum in Washington State. The Resolution would compel Monsanto’s Board of Directors to assess the actual and potential material financial risks or operational impacts on the Company related to a number of GMO issues. Monsanto shareholders are expected to vote on the resolution on Tuesday, January 28th.
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SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy.
BIOS BELOW:
Troy Roush is a conventional and organic corn, soybean and wheat farmer from central Indiana who appeared in the movie “Food Inc.”. He has served as the vice-president of the American Corn Growers Association, and testified before Congress in that capacity, and was sued by Monsanto for patent infringement in 2000 due to trace amounts of contamination from neighboring genetically engineered crops. Indiana later changed the laws to protect farmers like him in 2002. Roush began using Monsanto’s Roundup-Ready crops as a result of the contamination only to see widespread problems with Roundup resistance in 2005 which forced him to switch to more hazardous pesticides like 2,4-D to control resistant weeds.
Margot McMillen lives and farms in Callaway County, Missouri and teaches at Westminster College in Fulton. On her farm, Terra Bella Farm, several farmers raise meats and produce for restaurants and heritage wheat. She is a board member of Missouri Rural Crisis Center and on the Executive Council of National Family Farm Coalition. She was born and raised in Illinois where her family has been involved in agriculture for decades. Margot was the victim of 2,4-D drift last year from a neighboring farm which destroyed many of her crops, and from which she is still recovering financially.
David Runyon is a soybean farmer in Eastern Indiana. After a lifetime of work on their 900 acre farm, he and his wife Dawn almost lost it all when Monsanto accused them of patent infringement because Monsanto-branded seeds blew onto the Runyon farm. David and Dawn were vindicated when the company later dropped the case.
Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman is a senior scientist and director of the Grassroots Science Program at PAN. Before joining PAN in 1996, Marcia worked in Asia and Africa for 14 years. She developed farmer field schools in ecological pest management, sustainable agriculture and community-based rural development projects in Southeast Asia, and women’s health, literacy and resource conservation projects on the Thai-Cambodian and Somali-Ethiopian borders. Marcia holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Yale University. She has written extensively on the ecological, social and political dimensions of food and agriculture and was a lead author of the UN-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development.